Chuck Schumer: “I rise to oppose strongly the Goodling amendment and to talk about its effect on the underlying bill. Today we were…”

“I rise to oppose strongly the Goodling amendment and to talk about its effect on the underlying bill. Today we were supposed to vote on a bill to increase the minimum wage by 90 cents and to pay working families a living wage. We were going to raise the minimum wage from its lowest level in 40 years. And what do the American people wake to this morning? The Goodling surprise, an amendment which says that any business with annual sales of under $500,000 is exempted from the Fair Labor Standards Act. In other words, if an individual happens to be one of the 10.5 million Americans who work in these small businesses, they do not have to get paid overtime; they do not earn the minimum wage. Not the old one or the new one. In my region, the New York City metropolitan area, over 130,000 businesses will be exempt from fair labor laws and 200,000 workers will be left unprotected. The minimum wage vote should be called the Gingrich two-step. Take one step forward by raising the minimum wage for some people, take two giant steps back by exempting millions from overtime and minimum wage laws all together. Why must the GOP continue to gratuitously slap American workers? Why did they break their promise to offer a clean minimum wage increase?”